I´ll painting it myself . . . suggestions?

A long time ago I decided to teach myself how to paint and to practice by painting a new toolbox to match my new fire engine red truck. I had a small compressor at the time, 20 gal, and a gun that actually came with the compressor in sort of a package deal. I bought a quart of paint, had it mixed to code and just went with enamel because it was the easiest. I wasted probably half the quart fiddling with the gun to get a decent spray pattern on cardboard, then went to work on the toolbox. God, what a mess! My first attempt orange peeled real bad so I had to let it dry and sand it back smooth and try again. After a couple more attempts like that, I finally got an "acceptible" finish on the box sides and lid and barely had enough paint left to put one coat on the bottom and inside of the box. I had hung a plastic sheet to sort of wall off part of the garage for the operation but when I came out of the makeshift spray booth, I was horrified that it hadn't contained the airborne particles, everything in my garage had a light coating of pink dust! I was pink too, my hair (I had hair back then), my clothes, my shoes, everything! I offer this amusing and embarrasing anecdote, not to dissuade you, but as fair warning that its not as easy as it looks. If you decide to proceed, bravo for your courage and good luck to you.

Phil D. lol: WITH you, not AT you)

I've painted a few cars - the guys above are right its a lot of work and takes a lot of time depending on the job you want to do. For a good job you should strip down to bare metal, etch the metal and spray primer, that actually gives you a chance to practice cause you can sand down each coat if you screw up. Finishing coats are harder and you need to determine if you want to use a one step paint or base coat clear coat type. I've always used a U Do It type garage that has a well maintained paint booth with downdraft flow loads of air capacity , rents high quality guns, and the extra air line for your breather - you find out if your alergic to isocyanates in paint the hard way. (Only some clear coats and one steps have this stuff in it so make sure you read the label - The paint shop can help you out.) If you want to do just the hood I'd still advise taking it into a booth and doing it right. I figure you wouldn't have asked the question if you thought a rattle can was good enough.